Transcripts For CSPAN2 FEMA 20240703

Her agency can help with recovery of various areas by. Live coverage of this hearing on cspan three cspan3. As a reminder, please email it to documentsti mail. House. Gov. I want to thank our witness, the honorable. Is it deeann or deanna . For being here today. We are focusing on the current state of femas readiness, response, and recovery. Core mission is to help people before, during, and after disasters. Unfortunately, fema has added layers and adopted political agendas. The Biden Administration is imposing an agenda focused on Climate Change and equity which is diverging away from femas core mission. On august 28, the committee was alerted that the Disaster Relief fund would move to immediate needs funding until additional funds are appropriated. Federal reimbursements, recognized tribes for longterm disaster cover, projects are halted. Instead, the remaining balance is reserved for any Immediate Response activities. First asked fema in february. It is a long time ago now what it was going to do to avoid the drf running out of money since femas own monthly reports indicated the drf was projected to be depleted by now in september where we are. Fema provided no. Despite increase since we were not notified of the supplemental request until it was submitted to congress in august. Last month. And the request was tied to ukraines pending. In the wake of one of the deadliest fires in United States history, a supplemental request for additional disaster funding comes with Strings Attached to ukraine. Think about that in the audience if you are watching us. The american tax payer, the people that are suffering from disasters and somehow could not be bothered to discuss getting the drf refunded until august and it is tied to ukraine. I cannot reconcile that. I have overarching concerns about decisions being made. Domestic response activities tied to ukraine. We see fema under the administrations, significantly expanding its mitigation programs and ways that no longer require projects to demonstrate that they will, in fact, reduce cost or save lives. All in the name of equity and Climate Change. Female resources. Despite, fema being understaffed and obviously, underfunded. The Homeland Security act prohibits assets, functions, or mission for the continuing use of any other ghs organization unless assignments do not reduce the capability of fema to performance missions. Your agencies cannot be followed that law. That is concerning to me. Fema has a capacity problem and every diversion of resources undermined stability perform core missions. Confirmed this capacity issue at a hearing earlier. We know in response to letters from chairman graves that the key fema personnel have been diverted by the secretary to assist with bringing people into the country illegally. Femas emergency food and Shelter Program originally created to help americans is now become a program to pay for illegal foreign nationals. Residing in our communities and in our cities. I may disagree with many of my colleagues on the role of the federal government and what it should play when it comes to disasters but regardless, fema should not be used to advanced partisan policy objectives in fema resources should not be diverted for other purposes unrelated to its mission. Ultimately, all of this impacts readiness and ability to respond to disasters happening across our country from the maui wildfires to hurricane natalia and multiple flooding events. We can debate the role of the federal government but at the very least, we need to ensure fema is focused on its core mission. That is the one thing that this congress and signed into law. I look forward to hearing from you today. I now recognize the Ranking Member for five minutes for an opening statement. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, administrator criswell for joining us today as we discussed femas ability to lead Disaster Response and recovery. Since her testimony to the last year, Climate Change and Severe Weather instances have continued to generate dire circumstances that your agencies have had to deal with. That Disaster Relief fund, as a result and serves as the backbone is nearing depletion. It is utmost important that congress feel the president s request for supplemental funding. We should do that free of any poison and try to impose social policy into this area. That is the only way that fema can continue to provide the necessary resources for ongoing Recovery Efforts like we are seeing and malley in florida. We are likely to see even more emerge in the near future as we are into Hurricane Season. I appreciate your steadfast leadership of fema during this difficult time. My home state of nevada has experienced some impacts of Climate Change. Take time to think fema people and Emergency Response managers in my state for their Rapid Response to the extreme weather that communities, especially in southern nevada. You do not think about having a hurricane in the desert but indeed, we saw that across Southern California and some of its impact into the southern part of nevada. We also had unrelenting heat and we know that heat is a threat like other Natural Disasters that need to be undressed and we had repeated flashed letting. A channel that can be tried for years and suddenly become a rushing river. Will cause the successors to get worse in the coming years. As we Work Together with about a communities, i think this demonstrates one of the priorities of the administration which is in all of government approach. In addition to all of government, we think equity is important. We think Solutions Must guarantee that all disaster survivors and communities are created in treated fairly by these programs and these programs are addressed regardless of the neighborhood. Natural disasters amplify existing disparities in our society. It should go without saying is here to address the needs. As we try to respond these kinds of crisis. The subcommittee has received considerable testimony from underserved communities about their frustration of how they seem to be ignored, how much time it takes, and they are not in a position to get additional funding and we need to be sure that fema addresses that. I know that you recognize these standing disparities and you have been working with us to try to address them. We appreciate your work to implement new laws and policies that will have these longterm benefits all across the board. I especially appreciate and value your public support for reforms. Congressman. This is the disaster provider fairness act. We passed out of the full committee unanimously earlier this year. I would like to see it come forward because it was unanimous. It was designed. More accessible to survivors. It can contribute to some of the problems at the chairman without making it more efficient and effective. It removes barriers by creating a universal application and it empowers the agency to assist home damage more fairly, more quickly, and more accurately. This should ease the burden on families applying for Disaster Assistance and we hope to see it pass because these are the worst times in their lives and that is the least there government can do. Administrator, i think you and your colleagues for the work youve done to sheppard fema in a positive direction. I think you have done that by acknowledging Climate Change, prioritizing equity which we think is important and investing in mitigation. We recognize the challenges you face and we want to do everything we can help you. We know that that fund needs to be replenished. Thank you for being here. Chair, we recognize the chairman of the full committee. Chairman graves for five minutes for his opening statement. Thank you, administrator for being here today. On a bipartisan basis, the committee and this subcommittee in particular have worked to improve fema and the federal governments Emergency Management system. I am proud to be one of the co chairs of team is preparedness month which helps the American People and what they can do to be prepared. Femas role is critical and we have had recent planning and tornadoes in my district and it is important for fema to work quickly and closely with the state Emergency Management agencies and local responders. Last month on august 4th, and ef 2 tornado ripped through the city of bearing in knox county, missouri in my district. Governor parson submitted a federal disaster declaration on september 6th. I hope that fema will work swiftly and efficiently to approve this declaration to the people of missouri can continue to recover. I also hope that many of the reforms we have passed in my time on the committee is going to help her move a lot of unnecessary bureaucratic lessees as we move through the Recovery Process. I look forward to hearing with the administrator has to say today and other Critical Issues as we prepare for and to respond to disasters all across this country. With that, german barry . Thank you. Recognize the full committee for his opening statement. Thank you. It will be an opportunity today to discuss the many challenges fema is facing due to a busy disaster season and strategies to overcome the challenges. Climate change is making disasters more frequent, intense, and costly. Noah announced a troubling new record this month that in 2023, the u. S. Is experiencing a Record Number of disaster events with losses exceeding 1 billion. 23 separate events with each of those events exceeding 1 billion. Disaster season is far from over so this figure is bound to grow. The intensity of this years disaster season is rapidly distributing the Disaster Relief fund. I am very concerned about the lack of funding available to fight these disasters and impact on femas authorized programs. In the wake of wildfires, fema announced implementation of immediate needs funding last month to save what little money fema has left. Obligating funds for direct aid to survivors and actions that immediately save life and property. The result is all of the recovery projects such as rebuilding roads, bridges, and schools are on hold indefinitely. Fema had to put out 1610 recovery and mitigation projects on hold impacting nearly every state in every community in our country. The current state of the Disaster Relief fund is not femas fault, however. To provide enough funding. If the Congress Works together in a bipartisan manner to replenish the drf as soon as possible so that fema can continue to fill its mission of helping people before, during, and after disasters. However, addressing the billiondollar disaster requires more than just adding money to the drf. Needs to adapt a strategy for an evolving world so it can provide an adequate response each time the disaster was declared. Deputy administrator hooks briefed us earlier this year on current efforts outlined in femas Strategic Plan to address that. I appreciate the time that regional administrator in 10 took with my staff in Washington State. The exercise was very informative and facilitated connections. It is something that i would encourage other members to do in the regions with their Regional Directors to better understand congresss role in responding to disasters. There is always more work to be done. With more than 50 increase in storms and disasters in the last 10 years, fema must use science to incorporate into all of its programs. In order to address modern, Natural Disasters, we need to expand mitigation and increase resilience. Overwhelming evidence shows that medications common sense, costeffective waves save life and property. Support expanding funding and access in these projects. And we need to leverage all the resilience funding provided by the bipartisan. This landmark legislation included a 7 Million Investment for Disaster Mitigation programs would make it possible for fema to support the largest notice of funding opportunities in the building resilience infrastructure and Communities Program. The largest dentistry and funded the new Storm Program. New authorities provided by legislation such as davids Community Disaster resilient zones act, we will also have the target funding to the communitys greatest need and highest risk, Natural Disasters. We have to ensure all minis have equal opportunities to access these vital funds. Simplifying the benefit cost analysis requirement. More needs to be done to ensure the nations readiness by incorporating to change productions in all of femas programs. To make access of predisaster. Administrator, you have a difficult job. I want to thank you for the work that you do and what your team does and what they have done under your leadership. Your dedication and service to communities throughout the country is well noted and we need to do our job in supporting femas efforts to ensure more equitable outcomes and boarding more resilient nations. I look forward to discussing how we can drive these reforms and help fema achieve its goals. Thank you for being here. Let forward to your testimony. Gentleman from washington, i would like to thank our witness and thank you for spending your time with us today. I know you are busy and we appreciate your presence. Briefly, i would like to take a moment to explain our system to you. There are three lights in front of you. Green means go, yellow means you are running out of time, and red means to conclude your remark. It actually means you shouldve already concluded your remark. I ask unanimous consent that the witnesses will statement be included in the record without objection so ordered. If your written testimony has been written made part of the official record, the subcommittee asks that you limit your oral remarks to five minutes, maam. With that, administrator criswell, you are recognized for five minutes for your testimony and statement. Thank you, chairman perry and members of the subcommittee. Thank you for this opportunity to discuss the state of fema. Fema has a powerful Mission Statement spelled out in just seven words. Helping people before, during, and after disasters. That Mission Statement is our northstar and it reflects a deep and abiding commitment of our workforce to public service. And i can say without hesitation that our mission that fema has become more challenging. We could no longer really speak of a disaster season from atmospheric rivers in january two tornadoes and wildfires in december, we now face intensified Natural Disasters throughout the year, often in places not used to experiencing that. In just the last several months alone, we have seen disasters ranging from record flooding in vermont to the deadliest wildfire in over a century on the island of maui to the first Tropical Cyclone to make landfall in california since 1938. It is therefore vital that fema be able to tap into a properly funded Disaster Relief fund. We strive to be vigilant stewards of the taxpayer dollar and we are careful in our budget addictions. However, there are times when disasters outpace our appropriated funds and we are in such a moment today. The administration has requested a package that includes 16 million for the Disaster Relief fund and i urge congressional approval of this request and the administrations as soon as possible. On august 29, fema implemented funding for the First Time Since 2017. Under inf, we are prioritizing lifesustaining Disaster Responses in delaying obligations for longerterm work. As a result, we have needed the pause obligations to over 1000 public assistance projects across the country worth over 1. 5 billion. You all have my commitment that fema will move quickly to resume obligations paused as soon as the drf is replenished and Congress Must act today without delaying. To be effective, fema requires not only funding but a well trained workforce ready to deploy at a moments notice. The vast majority of our 22,000 person workforce are resurfaced. I think this committee and congress for passing the crew act last year, which expended to job protections. This law is improving our intention efforts. Fema is constantly working to improve the technology our programs use. After Hurricane Ian impacted florida, we implemented a rapid debris task force that used a combination of satellite, flyover, and on the ground data to identify areas where the debris was particularly concentrated and cleared 19 million cubic yards of debris. Enough to fill more than 5800 olympic size swimming pools within six weeks across the hardest hit areas. This was months faster than we have been able to do previously. We are also using Remote Sensing technology in maui to match homes listed in our individual assistance program. The survivors case information is shared with our housing inspectors who can reach out to survivors without requiring their destroyed homes. You will continue to Leverage Technology such as this to achieve this kind of people first results. Fema is not only response and recovery agency. We work to mitigate the worst impacts of disasters before they occur. Essential weight to result across the country is hazard resilient building codes which have avoided at least 32 billion in losses from Natural Disasters since 2000, alone. I recently met with survivors in horseshoe beach, a Small Community and floridas bend which received the front of hurricane dahlias wind and storm surge recently. Where many buildings remained, largely unscathed, i talked with one homeowner who owns several such properties and he told me clearly i built to code and codes work. Two of the three communities in the u. S. Do not have uptodate billing codes and we are implementing a National Strategy to help incentivize their adoption. Another way in which fema is working to increase the resiliency of our nation is through our new safeguarding tomorrow regarding the loan Front Program which will give local governments another tool to finance projects to mitigate against Natural Disasters. I want to thank you for the significant investment in the Grant Program for which we have announced 4 billion for mitigation projects across the nation. Every day, i see the unwavering dedication of our fema workforce to help people before, during, and after disasters. To help you to ensure that our work force has the resources it needs for that mission. Thank you and i look forward to your questions. Thank you for your testimony. We will now turn to questions for the administrator. The chair now recognizes himself for five minutes for questions. Administrator criswell, probably no surprise to you i do not always agree with my colleagues on what the role the federal government should be in disasters but i do believe whatever the Government Role is should be efficient and actually help people. In which a Small Business contractor as we did months to be reimbursed for emergency work and i have heard of. Is how you plan on being able to pay her employees, grow your business, pay her taxes, pay your insurance, fire equipment, et cetera. How do we inspect private sector partners to step up following disasters if they cant count on your administration . That would be a guaranteed paycheck as long as you do the different to standard as required. If you are going to wait months and years to the point where this particular company is laying off its staff as it cannot be paid by you, how do you expect anybody to be willing to work for fema in a moment of crisis where you got to move quickly . You are in a hurry because everybody is suffering the effects of the disaster. What is your interest back . How does that get solved . German, i obviously do not have the specifics of the kind of the company that you are speaking up but we work through our state and with our local entities to reimburse the work that is being done as they rebuild after these storms. Part of our process is to make sure that we are collecting all of the appropriate documentation to the work and making sure that it is done in alignment. So if its done and all the paperwork is in this particular instance, i do not want to mischaracterize anything. I am not going to name that company but we can talk off line about it. Everybody is doing this. They went in and did the work, they relocated their people, they did the work, the disaster is over, everybody is happy and with the work. Yet they are millions and millions of dollars unpaid, now for years. Chairman, every situation is specific and unique to that situation. I would be happy to get with you offline and better understand the specifics of what you are talking about. Do you understand the other contractors that are watching that circumstance are going to be reluctant to respond in a similar circumstance is another not going to be paid for years in the tune of millions of dollars . Do you understand that . Chairman, i do not know the specifics of which when you are talking about. We reimbursed billions of dollars every year to communities in states to do the recovery and rebuilding work. It is unfortunate that there is one specific example that you are talking about but i am happy to work with you on resolving that. The devastation in maui draws concerning parallel to the campfire in california and the role in that fire. In fact, the wall street journal has reported that electric is seeking legal advice from pge in itself and how to deal with the consequences of their actions. The molly powers like the campfire and california appear to be result of your policy, diverting resources away from fire mitigation towards Renewable Energy. That is not on you, that is their decision. The victim of the wildfires of the victims of selfimposed irresponsible and deadly Climate Policy created disasters. It wasnt the consequences of co2. When hawaii became the first state in the nation to mandate a transition. Mandate, require. Renewable energy by 2045 and they said they will reach the benchmark five years at a schedule and retire two power plants in sought to replace them with 900 megawatts of renewable power. Same year after one of the worst wildfire seasons in maui today. Hawaiian electric secured the risk of wildfire to their system and the need to implement mitigation efforts. They identified it but then they prioritized Renewable Energy over fire mitigation. Little and no mitigation work has been completed. Instead they spent millions on this transition to Renewable Energy. This is a concerning trend policy and used wildfires and it raises a lot of questions about the opportunity of cost associated with rapidly transitioning under mandate. The under market, under mandate to unreliable technologies. A significant cost to the ratepayer and obviously, the advocate devastating consequences to homeowners. Make matters worse, i will go on a little bit and i will truncate my remarks on that. Let me ask you this. This has become the policy of many western states where wildfires are prevalent. Should the american taxpayer, through fema, should they be responsible for paying for Recovery Efforts if states are diverting money away from mitigation efforts from misguided net zero policies that actively exacerbate fire conditions and endanger the citizens of those states . Should the taxpayer be required to pay for that. We are seeing an increase in the number of wildfires across the u. S. I do not know if that is true but regardless, what i am talking about is what is causing that . Policies are calling the wildfires. People are losing their lives and their property. To the rest of america paying for that when that can all be avoided . That is the question. Femas role should always be to go in and support the response and recovery of communities that are impacted by any type of Severe Weather. Will carr this of management decisions that are life threatening. We also have several programs that help Communities Reduce the impact. That is a focus that we need to continue to work on together. Are you doing anything to reduce the impact of these zero policies . To reduce the impact of Severe Weather events. Are you doing anything to mitigate them so these peoples lives and homes can be saved . Are you doing anything in that arena . Our focus is to work with communities to reduce the impact of whatever the risk okay, answer would be no. I yield the general lady. Renewing wildfires. We know that the balance is down to 2. 4 million in the relief fund. That sounds like a lot but as we have more disasters, they last longer, they do more damage, more expensive. Saying that it should pass the house without any social policy attached to it. One area that hears much about it is certainly a partner of we rely on their Services Daily to predict whats going to happen. The republicans have proposed cutting the national Longworth House Office Building Service, 200 million this fiscal year. I wonder if you could comment on how that will undermine your efforts or do you think that is a good idea . The national Longworth House Office Building Service is such a great partner for us and all the sister agencies that go with that, the National Water center, the National Hurricane center, all of those components bring us Critical Data and information and modeling to help us anticipate what those threats will be to a community so we can put the right measures in place to help protect them, whether that is as we are watching a storm developing us and allow us to position resources to perform lifesaving actions to predicting what the future might hold to help better invest our mitigation dollars. Any reduction in the ability for us to get that valued information, data and modeling would have Significant Impact on the safety and security of our communities across the nation. It would negatively affect your ability to spend taxpayer dollars in the most efficient way to say of property and more importantly save lives, is that right . It would cause us to have an increase in the amount of money we are spending on responding and recovering because we wont have the data to mitigate against the future risks. Thank you. I would ask your opinion and tell us what you think will be the result if we can get the disaster survivor fairness act that i mentioned in my opening statement, this thing could be supported by both parties, seems to make us more efficient and be a way to speed things up, the more equitable, pass this committee unanimously. Would you talk a little bit about how you anticipate that might give you an idea . Im very excited and very appreciative of the support of this bipartisan legislation. The disaster survivor fairness act will make a tremendous ability and our ability to help communities and there are a wide number of things that are covered and that the three that i really want to point out for the committee, first, its going to give us the authority to do direct repair to homes. This is going to be quicker, more efficient, more costeffective than the traditional programs we use, manufactured housing or temporary housing. Second, it will give us the ability to provide direct housing grants to states. We worked with states through a Training Program over the last year to see how much quicker they can implement these programs giving the ability to give direct grants. We believe that will increase the efficiency and ability for states to better take care of the residents and finally, and importantly, its going to give us the ability to streamline information sharing across federal agencies, many of our federal partners use our data to influence how they implement their disaster programs. If we can streamline that level of Information Programs it will be quicker to get online. Thank you. Would need your help advocating for this. I agree with you. It would make a big difference and to be helpful and we would like to do that. More quickly i would ask about the firefighter grants sitting next to your next september meritbased matching grants for local Fire Departments. Can you address those, your advocacy for renewing those programs . Reauthorization of the fire Grant Program is of critical importance because our firefighters are the backbone of our First Responders and this Grant Program allows us to continue to build capacity in our Fire Departments across the nation and the ability to have this program in place, if we didnt have it, it would jeopardize our First Responders. Many other functions as well. Not justify wildfires in the west, they have many others. This is all of our firefighters, structural firefighters and volunteer agencies, critical programs to keep the capability efficient to support the needs we are facing. I yelled back, mister chairman. The chair now recognizes representative we thought chairman graves would be here. Five minutes. Thank you to administrator deanne criswell. I appreciate you appearing in front of the committee that i chair, Homeland Security, Emergency Management technology and we discussed the everchanging mission, although fema has a mission, that mission has changed over the years. Most recently, the disastrous southern border we are dealing with, fema recently announced in june that new york city was set to receive one hundred Million Dollars from the shelter and Services Program to address the evergrowing migrant crisis. Since then as im sure youre well aware, the problem has only worsened and recently, mayor adams just last month, quote, said this issue will destroy new york city. A claim that agencies may have to cut up to 15 from their budget. Prior to you being the administrator of fema, you serve new york city proudly for two years and appreciate you leading the department of Emergency Management but 15 from the budgets of Department Like sanitation, the nypd, Emergency Management, buildings, on and on and on. Has is anyone from new york city been in contact with fema requesting additional funds to address the migrant crisis after already receiving 100 million . We have been in continuous communication with the city of new york, my regional administered maintains close contact on a regular basis to understand what their needs are and the department recently sent a team to do a deep dive with the mayor and his staff on what the Current Situation is and the needs they have to have a better understanding, the funding we have through the shelter and Services Program is a finite amount of funding, we do recognize they came in with a much larger request and what we were able to appropriate to them. How much of they additionally asked for . I dont have that number in front of me but it was well above what we had the ability to give a given the amount of money available. Part of the problem is, as i appreciate the time you spent in Emergency Management, someone who has also spent his adult life in Emergency Management world we always ask are we better than the last time we dealt with this issue and i think it is clear that mayor adams had no plan for being a sanctuary city and when asked by fema what are your needs and what do you need from us he doesnt have an answer because there is no plan. It is concerning that new york city continues to face significant challenges that it does, you never want to hear the mayor of one of the biggest cities in the world saying we have an issue we are facing that we cant control that is going to destroy our city. How is fema evaluating the difference between new york city and other cities and the intended purposes of this program . The shelter and Service Program directed by congress and the first part of that funding went to our Legacy Programming for humanitarian, as we moved into the shelter and Services Program and delivery of this as a new Branch Program we evaluated the data as it relates to release as well as destinations to make our determination. In the first part of the program, we had a heavier weight on releases and the first delivery of the ssp program, a higher focus on destination cities. As we move into the next fiscal year of this program as it continues to be funded, we are going to look at making it more competitive Grant Program using current data, the first delivery based on existing data but we know that the dynamics of the situation are real and the data changes on a daily basis and we want to make sure we have a better understanding of impacts to communities. In making these decisions, you and your team have obviously gone through more data than anybody ever wants to look at. Do you believe that theres Immigration Crisis facing us under the i would say failed leadership of the president and secretary mayorkas . Are we dealing with immigration issue throughout this country specifically in new york city which borders my Congressional District . Im not an immigration agency. What i can tell you is my agency will continue to focus on supporting jurisdictions that are managing the care of immigrants through our shelter and services. I only have a few seconds so i will ask it this way. Are there resources that should be utilized in other areas of the fema focusing on its original mention that are now being taken away because of the issues we are facing because of the failed policies of secretary mayorkas and President Biden . The only resources we are contributed to this mission are through delivery of our shelter and Services Program and providing reimbursement for some of the costs. If we didnt have this issue in place we would be utilizing that funding for other things. Mister chair. My time is expired. I yield back. The gentleman recognizes the Ranking Member of the full committee. Thank you, mr. Chair. Clarify would you, the shelter and Services Program diverting dollars or is this allocated appropriated dollars into the program considering you dont control. The shelter and Services Program was an additional allocation to our budget specifically for that program. So you didnt divert money from other programs. Speaking of which, other programs, to the Disaster Relief fund. I understand your implement and cost saving measures until Congress Passes supplemental disaster funding. There are quite a bit of a number of projects, you noted the number, i noted the number. One of which is in my district. For Washington State, that program, the Hazard Mitigation program, funding delays, a little over 10 the total amount in Washington State. Can you elaborate a little bit on the urgent need for supplement of funding, how delaying get projects in different programs can be funded because of the delay, the problem with Disaster Relief . With the Current Health of the Disaster Relief fund we have been watching this very closely throughout the year and made the determination to implement because our focus and priority needs to make sure we have the Resources Available to support lifesustaining activities through immediate needs funding that is what we are able to do. We delay the obligations for this other work. It doesnt mean the work necessarily stops. Just means we cannot reimburse jurisdictions for the cost that they incur as a result of that. Reimburse out of the drf . If it is funded through the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program. Those dollars are spent down or does the drf fund the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program . Hazard mitigation Grant Program and Building Infrastructure and Communities Program are funded from Disaster Relief. Okay. One of the things we will see is smaller jurisdictions that arent getting reimbursed for their projects are not going to be able to continue some of the work because of cash flow issues. They will need the reimbursement for these projects so they can continue the work even though we dont stop the work, its upon them to figure out how to continue to manage the work being done until they get reimbursed with the Disaster Relief fund. The other challenges, 8. 6 million sitting around to continue that work. Even noting its not my district but thurston countys district 3 is waiting on 859. They might be able to find it but my guess is the Fire District as well. Despite a range of communities being challenged here. Recently announced, thank you for giving these dollars out the door, authorized the Storm Program and funded it, you last two weeks ago announced the first 50 million. Is that right . Correct. We issued the first 50 million under the storm fund, a new program and a new type of program for fema, jurisdictions, this was oversubscribed but we are excited about the ability this program will do to help jurisdictions with their cost share portion of some of these difficult Hazard Mitigation projects in the community. Talk a little bit briefly about the importance of understanding the challenges you have on Climate Change, challenges with drf and medication and resilience, what i heard from you today. It is helping you to achieve the resilience to turn a corner on what fema is all about. We are seeing an increase in the intensity and severity and length of recovery, complexity of the types of severe Longworth House Office building events we are responding to. We will continue to respond to these events, but we have to reduce the impact from these events. The way we do that is through our mitigation programs. It is funded after a disaster, states and jurisdictions have funding after a disaster strikes or our Brick Program that can provide funding for predisaster helping them identify projects to help the more resilient. You know these projects can be expensive and come with cost share and jurisdictions, to fund up with the cost sharing. It can help a jurisdiction through this Revolving Loan fund to complete these projects and come up with their match or do other projects funded under one of the federal programs. Its a critical tool to help communities achieve the level of resilience they are going to need to have as we face a future of climate related events increasing the impact we are seeing in communities across the nation. Just quickly if you ll indulge me, in 2022 Washington State had 662 fires. This year to this date Washington State has 1855 fires the department of Natural Resources responded to. For one state wildfires are increasing. I wanted to make sure that is established at least for my state. I yield back. Include gentlemen, the chair recognizes the gentleman from mississippi. Thank you, mr. Chair. Thank you for joining us today. I really appreciate it. Before was sworn into office i promised my voters i would focus on Flood Insurance and flood mapping, issues that directly affect my district in south mississippi. Combat the effects of active flooding. Several of these counties are actively engaging in resilience projects. Accordingly fema has planned to spend 3 billion this year and resilience projects. In addition to several other agencies across the federal government. In my home county on the mississippi gulf coast, relying on many of these programs to build projects and improve the drainage, enhance our shorelines, protect our citizens from storms and flooding. Ideally these investments will provide better protection for property use and help lower Flood Insurance rates. However, because fema refuses to disclose the full algorithms used in risk rating 2. Oh the county leaders are unable to plan and target projects where they will have the greatest benefits to my constituents including lowering their interest insurance costs. My question, resiliency investments taken into account from the risk rating of 2. 0 algorithms. Most important piece is it now bases Flood Insurance premiums on each homes unique flood risk meaning it does take into account mitigation measures that have been put in place by the homeowner or the community and that is directly reflected in the rate of homeowners. It does. Thank you. I will be submitting ufrs to provide more certainties on this and i will move on. Congress similarly has export policies to improve the national Flood Insurance program which is unaffordable and unattainable in several areas in my district. I would like to submit the attached letter for the record that i wrote to you in july on this topic. I ask unanimous consent to submit the letter for the record. Without objection. Referencing the communitybased catastrophe insurance, and innovative approach that allows for customized coverage and empowers local decisionmaking rather than 1sizefitsall approach further reducing the burden on fema promoting self resiliency. This approach could bring Financial Resiliency to lower and moderate income households, placing extreme flooding and taxpayers for money. Can i have your commitment to exporting this approach to help better understand our state and county needs and individual risks they place in extreme flooding cases and does fema have the authority to use funding to support similar approaches, simple answers . You have my commitment to work with you on helping homeowners better understand their coverage and ways that we can help reduce their costs. We know that many of this is unaffordable which is why fema has reports to congress on an ability framework to have everybody have the ability to obtain the necessary protection that they need to help protect their families so you have my commitment to work with you on that. Thank you very much. Promoting resilience is only half the equation. The rising costs of disasters, even the most resilient communities may still lack the Financial Resources to adequately respond to a disaster, leaving leaders to take out large sums of credit to cover the immediate cost of recovery. Fema does provide assistance in reimbursing these advances, eventually most must be done to expedite the Financial Burdens on these disasters. Can i get your commitment to looking at proposals such as fema Loan Interest Payment Relief act as potential solutions to mitigate the burdens placed on my community. We have a number of programs that help communities with cash flow. We understand it can be a challenge so you have my commitment to find ways that we can improve upon that so we can help communities rebuild and rebuild in a way that will make them more resilient. Thank you. I yield back. Thanks. The chair recognizes representative holmes norton. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Administrator deanne criswell, we have a big double problem. Weve got a worsening Climate Crisis and weve got insufficient funds, Disaster Relief funds. In my district, the district of columbia, 13 public assistance projects totaling 7 million have been put on hold as well as 150,000 im sorry, 190,000 Hazard Mitigation project also on pause. It is critical that we replenish the Disaster Relief funds as soon as possible. Could you speak to the impact on communities, if congress does not pass supplemental funding for the Disaster Relief fund. Right now we are closely watching the Disaster Relief fund and want to ensure we have enough funding to support those activities that need to happen which means many of the projects like you described are our obligation and ability is on hold. The largest impact from that is their ability to continue with new projects until they can get reimbursed for the work they have already done and that will delay these communities and their ability to continue to recover. Absent a supplemental, this just means we are going to be that much farther behind with what is appropriate or recommended in the president s budget for 24 and further delay our ability to continue these longterm recovery projects in the months ahead. In your testimony you emphasized the need for uptodate disaster resistance building codes, this issue concerns residents of my district, the district of columbia which hosts a large number of federal or historic buildings. In what ways can fema aid in Disaster Mitigation and resiliency of historic buildings. One of the programs that im very excited and proud of is our direct Technical Assistance program that we are doing under our Risk Mitigation program where we are going to communities and helping them envision what types of mitigation projects they can do and helping them think through what maybe they hadnt thought of before and weve had Great Success supporting a number of communities across the nation to help them design and develop mitigation projects that will protect their communities especially communities that have such historic nature and we would be happy to work with you in better understanding of the communities you feel might need this Technical Assistance and work with you to try to offer that. I would appreciate that. But a special problem in the nations capital. Finally, in the district of columbia, have seen extreme heat. Earlier this month temperatures soared to at least 97 for 5 Straight Days breaking all historic records. How does fema help state and local governments respond to extreme heat . One of the best things fema does to help communities battle the impacts of extreme heat is through preparedness and mitigation. On preparedness we launched the Summer Ready Campaign to help individuals and communities understand the things they can do to protect our families that are experiencing extreme heat but we also know that we have to help to build a resilient infrastructure to support vat, whether thats making sure they have generators for cooling centers or white roof to help reduce the heat in buildings or adding green areas, mitigation programs can be used to mitigate the impact of extreme heat for future events we are going to see. Thank you, mister chairman. I yield back. The chair now recognizes jennifer gonzalezcolon from puerto rico. Thank you for bringing us together and thanks to the administrator. The sixth anniversary of Hurricane Maria in puerto rico and we are still performing recovery ward for municipalities for individuals and many others. There recovery of the electric power grid of the island is still in the planning stages which is one of the issues im most concerned about and theres been a historic very real fear that between relays and cost increase there will be a missed opportunity in what was promised that will not get done, to that end, i know the fema recovery page indicates between all the various disasters in the past few years, public assistance has allocated 45 billion for puerto rico, almost all out of the Disaster Relief funds of which 90 million has been outplayed. Transfer from fema accounts that are responsible and on the other hand fema announced 31 billion for public assistance projects and the obligation near 1. 9 billion but because of municipalities on the island, notforprofits dont have cash on hand or credit to start work before reimbursement, local institutions established a working system provided 1. 2 billion for municipalities and nonprofits. However, in puerto rico, as many as 2 thirds of those entities have to return those advances to not being able to have evidence and fema is aware and will get a report in specific ways so to that end i would love to have a copy of the report you promised or at least been saying fema promised to have a report on that relationship between fema and number 3 as well as the subcommittee of oversight should have that report. My question, administrator, does your agency have a record on how much has been dispersed to puerto rico . We are extremely committed to helping puerto rico recover and since ive taken this position ive met many times with the governor and my team is still embedded in puerto rico. Has it been dispersed . We absolutely have the amount. We have funded over 10,600 projects the total 30 billion. This is 2800 projects that have begun construction across puerto rico and 1800 that have been completed. Prior to becoming into this position there were only 81 projects. I have been here. Tremendous increase in the progress. Theres a lot of data and numbers receiving these funds. If you can provide the Committee Information about where we are with the latest update of those funds for municipalities on the island which is one of the major issues. How many are pending for approval or disbursement from fema . We have the same issue with local agencies, totally different process. The issue thats important is would the difference, with the section 248 or 406 cross up inflation for many of those projects and where announced for funding in 2018 now may be bigger, as an example the hospital that was organized with 59 million and now is 85 million so we have many that may not have the full amount of resources to finish, that will happen with the electrical grid on the island. My time is going to expire but i would like the committee to have the precise data regarding planning changes, how much is been disturbed, when do you expect that we actually have some construction or delivery and one of the biggest issues and biggest Reasons Congress did approve 11 billion that have not been used. That is not your fault, but people have been waiting for 60 years. The local agencies are telling you nothing is powered for a week because we dont have enough power to govern the island. Having said that i will provide the community with a list of questions regarding this and hope the fema administrator can provide answers to the committee. Im happy to provide answers. Thank the gentlewoman. The chair recognizes the gentleman from california. I think the chair. I want to spend my time asking about something that is at the core of femas work. Who gets Disaster Relief and who doesnt . Let me first say i am a big believer in the mission of your agency. I think its one of the great things are federal government does to make sure fema Disaster Relief is there for devastated communities no matter what they are or what their politics are and i commend you and your colleagues for your dedication in this creek work. I represent the north coast of california. I have seen firsthand what a difference that Disaster Relief can make for devastated communities but i have also seen what happens when theres a devastating Natural Disaster that doesnt quite trigger fema Disaster Relief and i have seen how in equitable that can be. My district includes the less affluent communities. We have an equity problem when it comes to this mechanism. We leave a lot of less affluent communities behind and with the Climate Crisis bringing us more and bigger disasters, we need to tackle this equity problem to get ahead of it. I told you little about my district, weve got earthquakes, soon armies, wildfires, it is the poster child for this problem. Because femas arbitrary and inflexible financial damage threshold can leave devastated communities behind. In 2017 the helena fire burned 72 homes in junction city, trinity county, one of the smallest, poorest Rural Counties in california. That took out 15 of the countys housing, 15 of the county that had modest homes so Property Values were not high enough to reach the threshold and of course the county government lacks resources, struggling community and so they didnt get the fema Disaster Relief. In december 2022, 6. 4 magnitude earthquake struck humboldt county, took out 25 of the citys housing stops, estimated 26 million in overall damage, total of 35 million in damage to the county but this is there for a, struggling county, did not meet the threshold. If you took the same disaster and it happened in an affluent place, and a number of places, took out a small fraction of the homes, you would have no problem triggering federal Disaster Relief but these communities were left without that support. The flipside of that in 2011 there was a massive earthquake in japan that triggered a tsunami that just wrecked the Crescent City harbor in my district, the damage was about 50 million, just short of the threshold to get Disaster Relief but we got lucky because the same synonymy also hit a harbor in santa cruz further south in the state where some fancy yachts were parked and because those yachts enable the damage tally to go a little higher, Crescent City did qualify for federal Disaster Relief but imagine if some of those fancy boats had not been parked in the harbor at that time, would have been left with nothing. It seems to me that this is fundamentally unfair and again with more disasters coming we need to provide more flexible, equitable ways for devastated communities to qualify for federal Disaster Relief from fema. My staff will be presenting you with a letter today. I am asking you to work with us on this important issue. I believe you have existing authority that would let you do a rulemaking to provide that flexibility and equity but if you need new authority, Additional Authority i hope you will let us know and we will get to work to make it happen. Let me leave it there and ask for your response and i really hope your commitment to work with me on this. You make some very good points and it does show why one of my priorities has been equitably delivering our program. When it comes to clearing of the disaster we have another factor to take into consideration, whether the state has the capacity to support it, not just local jurisdiction but the amount of insurance and damage. It can be very complex. Thats why we are continuing to work on ways to improve the way we are delivering our program and also better understand the communities that are experiencing being able to get the assistance they need in order to properly recover so you have my commitment to continue to find ways to improve the way we are delivering our program, ensuring everybody who is eligible to the program has access. Thank you. I yield back. The chair of thanks the chance when it recognizes the vice chair of the subcommittee, the gentle lady from oregon. Representative chavezderemer. Nice to meet you. Weve not officially met. And a member of congress, im grateful you are here today to answer the questions that we have. Given your background at fema and in colorado as a firefighter and fire chief, i am sure you have a unique and deep appreciation for the devastation caused by wildfires. One of my highest priorities is to find solutions to help oregonians address the challenges of wildfires. The House Committee on agriculture, one of my top farm bill priorities is to properly equip our firefighters to get these wildfires under control and prevent them from getting out of hand in the first place. So far i am championing nine legislative items to tackle these important issues and this is an issue i will continue to focus on. In 2020, the state of oregon experienced its most of us dating wildfire season on record, the labor day fires. Which began in august and lasted until november. According to the Oregon Department of Emergency Management wildfires burned 1 million acres. The area of rhode island. Affected 20 counties, destroyed or damaged 5,000 structures and resulted in 600 million in damage across the state. The city of detroit in Marion County was especially devastated by the fires and my office continues to work with the city to help the community recover. This was required, a required stop for staff, i had dc go to oregon to understand what was most important to me and as we set up our new offices. One specific area of frustration brought to my attention concerns detroits application to obtain funds for a Water Treatment plant. This process continued and has continued for three years after the fires. Detroit completed their paperwork, and femas engineering requirements. However i turnover at fema forced the city to reexplain application and justify each aspect of the project multiple times. Applications for 5. 7 million. Completing the federal paperwork and meeting standards is hard enough. How is it fair to require communities to recomplete its over and over again for three years. My question to you is can you offer any assurances that fema will give pending applications full and fair consideration . Absolutely. I will followup on this personally and ensure the application is reviewed and we are giving it full and fair consideration based on the application as submitted. Im happy to followup, happy to meet with you offline. One of the things i like to do is open my office to get the work done. We have to move the ball down the field and often times after testimony like this it doesnt happen. Im committed to get this application forward. Regarding the high turnover what steps can fema take to ensure the agency is able to obtain knowledge when someone leaves and then how can we reduce the burden to bring someone up to speed on an application such as this . The retention and recruitment of our workforce is so critical, the majority of the personnel we have our our reservists and they are the backbone of what we do which is why we are very grateful to congress for the passing of the crew act which gives them protections and we have a broader pool of people that i feel we can recruit from and i talked to reservists firsthand in the field about how they are already benefiting from this piece of legislation which is increasing the number of reservists we can potentially count on. We are offering new incentives, recruitment bonuses and admit straight of time offer reservists after they demobilize, little steps that are increasing the desire of our workforce to bring in new people and help them understand that we are there for them and recognize the value that they bring and that makes them excited about their continued work in supporting survivors before, during and after disasters. My time is going to expire. The chair thanks the gentle lady, the chair recognizes the gentleman from california. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Youve got a tough job. You really do. All around this nation, theres some sort of a disaster going on almost all the time. Thank you. Thank you for your efforts and the work that you and your team to. Obviously all of us believe it is extremely important. There is always a problem. Some of these problems are in the scope of the issues you face which seemed to be mundane. We had a covid crisis a couple of years ago, there were shutdowns, individual counties housed Homeless People in separation so that they might not get sick or infected. One of those counties is waiting for reimbursement for their program. Region 9 made a decision that they wouldnt be paid and appears to be contrary to your national guidance. We would like you to look into it for specific information to take a look at. Has to do with not a great amount of money in the scope of what you are facing but nonetheless important across the county. To allow your guidance, with region 9 determination to not reimburse. Having said that, getting your specific information you will follow and we would appreciate it. In the scope of the issues you have, we will never be able to deal with disasters unless we continue to press for mitigation, mitigation is one of your tasks and there are a couple mitigation programs of concern here. Specifically, mitigation having to do with water infrastructure, one of your programs is, does not seem to provide firefighting water infrastructure, may be a hydrant or a tank, take a look at that and if we are going to mitigate for example the camp fire, how do we do it without water and water infrastructure, to deal with that, we need to make sure and get you specific concerns in california about that. The final point is your Revolving Loan fund program. If it works, provide the state with money they can pass on to counties, cities, others to get ahead of the problem by using that money to develop mitigation programs. However, you sent 50 million to 7 states and the district of columbia. Youve got 100 million available, how about the other 50 million, 200 million, not exactly clear how much money in this evolving loan program. And and allocated for Disaster Recovery. California and others, that representatives have, what is the status, and that will depend upon, and it is an incredible tool, to front some of the costs. When we first got the authorization, we wanted to make sure we get a portion of that funding. We did a partial funding opportunity for the 60 you mentioned. This required the first of its kind program and requires state and local partners build capacity to administer such a program, to do a funding opportunity we also have been working with state and local partners to establish program so they can administer and go forward in this program, we will be issuing notice of funding opportunities for the full amount of the Program Going forward. We continue to work with that. Im out of time. I appreciate your task that you are doing, extraordinary importance of it. Some of us want to do that. Thank you. Thank you. I will recognize the gentleman from california for 5 minutes. Thank you for allowing us to get in today. Very important topic. Thank you for efforts with fema and difficult times and soon army and earthquake and wildfire flood and have that in the area, and who knows maybe volcanic corruptions, i wanted in terms mostly of wildfire areas that were devastated several times. Only to be eclipsed by lahaina in loss of life and the dc fire in 21, billion acres, the lord blessed us with rainfall and snow pack so we are not feeling so much the size and scope of wildfire we are getting used to lately and i wanted to speak with you about practical matters. Hard to get things up quickly. Its really great work by fema working with local governments on other fires, to build from the ground up on wildfires that havent been quite the big area that fema had to do in the past. We still have trouble on the timing of things like that. The housing, trailers and things. I want to touch on the north complex fire, butte county, might be familiar with this. In the north complex fire, very impacted including water Delivery System for the community. The water system was wiped out so the district, the Water District submitted several public assistance claims but it took years for the submission, denial, appeal, denial to take place for that assistance. During that time, what was there, the infrastructure was allowed to deteriorate even more. We couldnt get the teams out there, couldnt get coordination for everybody to look at the district and see what it is going to be at what level. Fema didnt meet the required deadlines to respond on that. A lot of time and effort and infrastructure was lost. Especially small town like that like mister huffman was talking about were extremely impacted because they had limited ability to apply for this or ask for grants or things like this. What i would ask is that. If you could take another look on the north complex fire in Northern California and see if you believe they got a fair shake on it that. So much time went by, the short end of it now. And overall i would like to commit the coordination with state folks more so in our case so applicants can know what the resources are more quickly to respond to that so theres less local suffering. Could your office work with mine and californias entities to find a way to compact these timelines and not have unnecessary delays. We will certainly take a look at the case you mentioned. I dont have specifics on fat here but happy to take a look at that. We worked in the last two years to figure out ways that we can be better engaged with our customers and have more of a people first customer centric approach and sometimes it takes one on one communication, we are doing what we can to work with communities in your district. Across california and the rest of the country to better understand that. It took strong effort by staff for everybody to come to one meeting and meet on this. It did happen but it was a long time after the fire, the deterioration, we need to look at things that happen post wildfire, and the mudslides. And after effects taken into account. Do you think we can look at that process so mudslides directed the related to the fire can be part of the conversation. It is one of the concerns we have after a wildfire. We have Hazard Mitigation assessment teams that will go into communities to better understand the cascading impacts, and what mitigation projects to put in place. And working on that, happy to provide the staff with what the work was. Thanks very much. Repositioning resources for wildfires and a key component as well. Thank you for the time, i yield back. The chair will recognize mr. Carter, the major army corps of projects, due to funding gap. What i end up having implemented in the drf Disaster Recovery fund running low. What happens if this fund is not replenished by congress. Projects you currently mentioned, obligations are on hold because they are not lifesustaining project and want to reserve whats left to support those efforts for things like we saw in maui with the wildfires. As soon as the drf is replenished you have my commitment to begin reimbursing these projects on a first in first out basis. We will work around the clock 7 days a week to expedite those payments but we cannot do so until drf is replenished. The time frame previously known as Hurricane Season is dramatically extending year over year. Of 2. 4 billion storm were to hit right now and mt the drf, what would happen if a subsequent disaster struck with Disaster Recovery fund sitting on 0 . We are monitoring Disaster Relief fund very closely which is why we implemented the immediate funding. If we have another catastrophic event that happens at the same time we will prioritize those most critical lifesaving activities to ensure that we have the resources that can go into communities and save lives. Continue to delay the obligations for the recovery projects and perhaps if needed for some of those projects so we can focus efforts on safety. We know these storms come harder and faster and stay longer and cause more devastation in their path. We also know that there is a looming chance the government can shut down or even have a continuing resolution. In the case of such drastic act of shutting down the government or having continuing resolution that freezes funding, what does that do to your agency and all the ongoing Natural Disasters you currently face . Should lastminute appropriations occur, anything that would remain in Disaster Relief Fund Carryover balance would move forward but given the current state it would be insufficient to cover all the ongoing lifesaving operations and we would continue to reverse the scope of what it is we are supporting on the interoperations. To incur obligations for activities necessary for lifesaving and protection of human life but we would have to reduce those lifesaving operations we are working on based on the funding available. Isnt it true that if such action of shutting down the government or having a continuing resolution to drastically impede your ability to provide resources impacts democrats, republicans, independents and the like through the country . The appropriation for fema Disaster Relief fund has impact on everybody across the nation from our ability to do lifesaving actions in a number of places as well as ongoing recovery projects regardless of where they are. As a result of Climate Change, deadly heat waves have gripped our nation from coasttocoast. What step is taken to mitigate heat hazards . In my state alone, wildfires we have unprecedented in louisiana, burning out of control. Share with us what measures you are taking . We see this happening more and more in places it never happened before, people who never suffered these calamities are dealing with them. Share with us what actions your agency has taken. What you have described, convergence of multiple climate related hazards coming together in ways we havent seen before, decades of drought combined with extreme heat creating unprecedented wildfires and heat domes in areas that are lasting longer than they ever have. Are mitigation programs definitely can help support communities to better understand the threats and risks they dont just face today but the risks they are going to face in the future and how to use mitigation funds to help mitigate and reduce the impact of these risks weather is creating green space and light roofs to reduce the impact of heat or Hazard Mitigation to reduce the spread of wildfires and communities that have that type of threat. Are medication programs are critical to helping communities across this country better understand what their risk is and how to reduce the impacts so they dont have these long complex recoveries that we can save lives. My time is up. Im going to end with this statement because i will never pass an opportunity in your presence to talk about the devastation particularly on louisiana but multiple other states and i will continue to encourage we put our heads together. Thank you for time weve spent in discussing back and forth this issue that is far yet result but thank you for the efforts and employ you to continue working with us in a bipartisan way to address the issue of risk relating 2. Oh that is devastating particularly for louisiana. Particularly for louisiana. The chair will recognize mr. Graves from louisiana. I want to thank my friend from louisiana for bringing up some local issues and pick up where he left off. Administrator, we had a chance administrator, we had a chance to cover some grant in louisiaa and the past and talked to a number of issues. In this case i want to talk about where mr. Carter left off. You are part of the federal government that is comprised of hundreds of millions of citizens. We i think thrive on transparency and accountability. The fact that fema has continued to hide behind this proprietary model and the methodology for determining rates for risk rating 2. 0, mr. Carter mr. Carter and i are incapable of explain to the people that we represent whyhy the rates have gone from 560 the year under preferred risk to 8000 or 9000 a year. Its not okay that we cant explain it. Its not okay fema tries to hide behind this proprietary model and the just want to ask you would you make transparent the methodology and allow us to explain to our constituents whyu the rates are skyrocketing . Explained to our constituents how labor protection and of the features are actually benefiting them that in many cases property taxes, sales taxes and appropriations weve been able to secure our making them safer . Congressman gohmert risk rating 2. 0 public one of the most important actors about risk rating 2. 0 is that basis what Flood Insurance rates a homes unique risk here while we have seen a significant amount of policies across the nation that it had decreases we also know that now that we understand the homes unique risk many of the policies many of which are in louisiana the rates have gone up here we have provided speedy that said answer the question on transparency. The question is transparency. I cant explain to constituents why their rates have triple, quadruple or what have you. I can explain how the levee that is right behind their house provides them a level of protection if fema is refusing to be transparent. You are part of the federal government. This lack of transparency is not okay andnd the fact some places richer skyrocketing and people according to the maps are outside the flood zone. It doesnt make sense. Something if her go to talk, since for just a minute, homes are static structures in many cases. Concrete slab, understand we have come in an elevated them under programs, but in reality if people complied with the rules at the time they built their home, in some cases these homes have been here for hundreds of years and were going to change conditions on them and refuse to provide any degree of transparency . I would like a commitment that youre going to be transparent and provide the methodology to the public, let people look at understand it and perhaps perfect it. Congressman graves, we continue to provide briefings to your staff and others on how we have i will take that as a no. As were talking about like a conspiracy and want to talk with something else. There was a meeting held at the white house on may 11 of the with National Security council fema and others talk about and as he stepping in taking over coordination of disasters or emergencies. Thats what congress charge you to do. Can you shedes any light on what this is the white house is coming in and taking this over . Can you share documents with the committee and help us understand this better since were the ones who write the laws . Thank you for the question. Recovery is and will remain one of the Core Functions that fema does and were always looking for ways we can improve on how we deliver not just our programs that help coordinate the federal family for longterm recovery. Maui is a good example of how we have set up a longterm recovery operation in the county with the state using the leadership of our state and local leadership to help drive the requirements. Theres always room to improve and one ofp the things that we are working as result of hawaii with the nsc on is bringing together our cabinet secretaries to help ensure they have visibility of all of the things their programs and agencies are doing on the ground. That is a commitment that i had to continue to support communities like maui with his longterm recovery operations,au making sure that fema sustained the role of being that agency that has the ability to cordon it across agencies. You have a tough job. You do. I a appreciate your willingness to do it. Every time you step in its because theres a a disaster. Thats not an enviable position. But i but i want to be cleae congress has charge you with that responsibility and if there is some proposed change of their this committee deserves transparency to make sure that we believe it is consistent with the law and congressional intent to i want to ask her commitment to provide as transparency on this as well. Its at a commitment youre willing to provide . Yes, sir. I know to be quick here. Duplication of benefits drive me crazy because i watch our federal government be incredibly inefficient. We have resulted programs, mitigation programs inn fema, corps of engineers, department of agriculture, in no and many, many others. We have explicitly wrote a change in the law in 18 it said that duplication of benefits with corps of engineers programs does not exist, meaning you can pay for it through hmp g. Yet ive watch where fema has refused and said that you could not provide funds to a core project that was in the 7001 report. I will make will make note does not meet its funded. Yet youve had the situations were washington d. C. Has gotten funds for poultry equity, i dont know what the hell that is. Got money for tree equity, meanwhile portland has gotten funds through similar programs. So why is it that if force services is going to find treeplanting how come fema willl funded as will . Why is that a duplication of benefit . I dont have the specific could you give us an answer . I will followup. Thank thank you mr. Grav. The chair will recognize this tristan from arizona for five thank you very much, madam cn the subcommittee discussion of great importance and urgency to my home statete in arizona. Administrator criswell, commutes along the southern border on the frontlines of an ongoing humanitarian crisis. Right now federal migrantsi Holding Facilities are well overcapacity it last week dhs began to release migrant on the streets of small rural arizona kennedys like bisbee, no galas and douglas arizona. Instead of providing the necessary resources to put provide housing, feeding, trained hoarding microcephalic of has shifted federal assistance away from arizona to other states. And made it much harder for local governments to get reimbursed for costs incurred. Im at former mayor and the knowhow to tight municipal budgets are but, frankly, it is insulting the federal government is forcing them in to such a precarious financial decision. Im particularly concerned about femas complete lack of transparency in how the shelter and Services Program funds are allocated. And why such a disproportionately small amount of overall funding has come to arizonas overwhelmed Border Community. In this june guidance fema stated eligible applicant allocations were quote based on release and destination data received from cbp and emergency food and Shelter Program humanitarian request made in fiscal year 2023 unquote. No other information was provided for how these funds would be allocated. The Southern Arizona coalition which includes fema and the city of tucson and catholic Unity Services has a combined monthly costs and is averaged more than two main dollars a month this summer and their costs are steadily rising. As dhs release of more than 1000 migrants on average every day. Ev they were eligible to apply for just 10. 9 million in assistance through the shelter and Services Program, while new york, 2000 miles away, received ten times that. I have been told the funds in Southern Arizona has received will last five months. That is due in part to deep cuts. It is simply not right. Administrator criswell, why is such an enormous disparity between the resources allocated to border kennedys compared to enter communities under this program . M . Shouldnt the needs of arizonas border communities and those and weighed more heavily when allocating these critically funds . Representative stanton, we know that there is great need out there for these funds, and through our Legacy Program emergency food and Shelter Program humanitarian, with the direction of congress to establish our newon shelter and Services Program, we use our Legacy Program to administer the first portion of that funding which highly favored our border cities. As we implement the shelter and Services Program we did begin to take into greater account release data but also destination daily as we understand communities across the country are incurring costs as theyre providingde shelter d services for the migrants. As we move into the next Fiscal Year Ended the Program Continues to be funded we will be basing this more on a competitive take into account the existing data and impacts commutes are expensive as we make decisions for future funding allocation. Are you saying today femas will make this moving for a competitive Grant Program like emergency food and Shelter Program to disperse funds . The emergency food and Shelter Program was not a competitive Grant Program as compared to our traditional Grant Programs, the children Services Program will be more of a Competitive Program similar to our other Grant Program. Im happy to do with the additional rounds of funding. When that funding occurs how will you address a significant shortfall by arizonas Border Community in responding to the increased number of Asylum Seekers been released by dhs . This program even through our well as the shelter and Service Program continues to be oversubscribed and i anticipate it will continue to be oversubscribed. We would use Data Collected from cbp to help make those decisions but again we know many communities will not get enough funding for the costs they are incurring. Ssp funding is more restrictive and coming cost incurred by local governments and ngos. What are ssp funds so much more restrictive than funding received previously under theth emergency food and Shelter Service program . What wasde the rationale for capping hotel costs now when a previous he wasnt capped . I would have to go back with my keep on some of the specifics on how we made those decisions and requirements within a program but again this program is a new program for fema. This is a first iteration of the shelter and Service Program. Continue to improve based on the Lessons Learned on the initial allocation of those funds. Happy to continue work with you and your staff on ways we can continue to improve. One final quick question if i might. To getting with extreme heat another important issue to arizona. Our extreme heat declarations eligible for stafford act disaster declaration edessa stafford act need to be amended to include extreme heat condition . The stafford act does not need to be amended to include extreme heat. We base our decision on a number of factors, mostly on doesnt exceed the capacity to state and local jurisdictions. If the response to an extreme heat and said exceeds the capacity of state and local jurisdictionee they are very opn to submit a disaster declaration request and we will consider that aced on whether or not it exceeds their capacity. I yield of expert the chair will recognize mr. Rouzer from North Carolina for five minutes. Thank the madamam chair and matted administrator, thank youa so much for being here. As my friend and colleague derek grigsby, derek grays, pardon , i know a great beach somewhere else, as my colleague mr. Graves mentioned, theres the question you have a tough job. I will reiterate what he underscored in that the duplication of benefits is a big issue for a lot of us. We would love to see the administration stick with the intent of congress on that because that is a big, big issue for many of our disaster survivors. Speaking of disasters, we have a lot of hurricanes come through. Obviously. My district is southeastern North Carolina. In 2016 when Hurricane Matthew had a lot of flooding with that. In 2018 we had hurricane florence, tremendous amount of flooding with that. Its quite common for residents who live in condominiums, Homeowners Associations, housing cooperatives, that when those Natural Disasters hit they can get no assistance from fema. Just curious if you foresee that that will continue to be the case or if theres been any internal discussion about modifying the rules and regulations to where they woulda be eligible moving forward . Congressman, people own their homes, whether that be an individual home, a condo, whether they areth a renter, thy are eligible for our program. Our decision based on a number of factors. One is most certainly the amount of insurance they have and what insurance covers, and did whether they have actuall damags to their homes and what we can repair for those homes. We also provide things like rental assistance which people eligible for regarding whether your homeowner or a renter. It is something specific that you have an example of i would be happy to work with your staff to look at it and that understand what that circumstance was but theres no factor that does not allow somebody who ownse a condo to be eligible for program. Well, historically fema has been very resistant to helping those that are technically classified as a Homeowners Association and many people live in neighborhoods, big and small, that have a Homeowners Association and, therefore, they cant get debris picked up. Theres always municipalities get reimbursed through publicre assistance or picking up debris, et cetera. They will not pick up debris and a Homeowners Association for that reason. I have someow legislation that will help clarify this and make everybodys like a little easier. It is h. R. 3777, the Disaster Assistance fairness act but im not so sure that whats included in the legislation couldnt be addressed with a simple rulemaking because it very much fits within the intent and scope of femas work during Disaster Recovery. So i would love to with you more about that offline and appreciate your attention to it. Thank you for the further explanation and we would be happy to provide direct Technical Assistance on what youre working on. Thank you very much. I yield back. Thank you mr. Rouzer do with that the chair recognizes mr. Ryan from new york for five minutes. Thank you, madam chair. Thank you for allowing me to join. Thank you, administrator not only for your service to our nation but also for your service to new york in your previous roles. As i believe youre aware aware and your team is aware several communities in my district in Hudson Valley of new york, cornwall, might come in west point were absolutely devastated in early july with unprecedented, over eight inches of rain in just a few hours. Absolutelyin overwhelming all of the systems, processes, resources that the community had ever had to deal with or prepare for. Tragically, weo did lose one young woman to the flood. Weve had hundreds displaced. Since a flood my team and i have personally spoken with hundreds of affected residents. As is always the case and you know this will each other stories is just heartbreaking. One that i cannot stop thinking about as a veteran in mike unity, 100 disability rating from the v. A. Who sever tbi and other serious injuries, still fighting and struggling to get any help to rebuild his home that was completely condemned. And despite all the work by you and your team, despite the declaration of a federal disaster and some of the public assistance, folks like him and hundreds of others are still without any help and any relief. Almost none of them had Flood Insurance because of the topography of where the live. Its absolutely almost impossible they could experienc Something Like this tragically they did. I want to commend you and thank the president and the administration for pushing to declare the disaster declaration, for working with a good team on the ground to start to get the public assistance flowing. But the number one question that i hear still in our office is, why have we not received an individual assistance declaration . D really the depth of the damage for several hundred families is just devastating. The gentleman said story i shared is just one. We have kids living in condemned homes because they just have no other option. Seniors without homes. Ive invited youe to come. I know youre very busy but i would ask you are one of your Senior Leaders to commit to come and look those folks in the eye with me, help explain whats brainstorm what we can do to help them. Can we countwh on you to do tha . Yeah, absolutely. I dont have the specifics of why we havent yet. Happy to look into that personally much of my commitment if it cant make it one of my Senior Leaders can join you to better understandk the impacts f this community. I appreciate it. Building on question from my colleagues can specifically mr. Huffman, can you explain why in the midst of a disaster like this it is so darn hard and colocated and opaque, which seems to be a theme that weve heard throughout the questioning, that we cant just answer resident who are devastated why they are not getting individual assistance, and what we can do to change that come what my team and i went all the local officials and our governor and county leadership and local leadership who have all been working as a team. Can you explain that . Are a number of factors that we look at we were making a determination of whether to recommend declaration for both public assistance and individual assistance. Again a good portion of that falls on what the capacity of not just the local jurisdiction is but with the state should be able to do to also support we understand when theres commute is small Rural Communities and states like new york that of large urban centers that it creates a greater capacity of the state should be able to come in also provide a level of assistance. All of those are factors that are taking into consideration that just a impact to the one committee at how much the state should be able to support. I appreciate your commitment to personal look into this. I can tell you on the ground while the state has contributed significantly, it is nowhere near meetingd the need specifically for folks franko that dont qualify for some of the income thresholds but had no Flood Insurance and areld far beyond their means to repair devastating damage. We have to ask americans be able to figure out how to navigate this. Myself and my team will be available anytime anywhere you and your team, so thank you to your folks that have been on the ground and helping, and weve all certainly be persistent in following up with you on your kind commitment today. Thank you. Iit yield back. The chair thanks a gentleman. The chair is to help in agreement with the Ranking Member that were going to go for a second round. The chair will recognize himself for beginning that second round of questions. Administrator criswell, i think a highlighted the crew act in your testimony now and verbally numerous times regarding how to help the staffing shortages. Yet your letter in responses the letter some chairman gray seen the resource and personal have been diverted to help deal with the border crisis. I would asking in this consent to have d. C. Males admitted e Record Company without objection, so ordered. On march 17 an email of yours provided the Committee Response these overset letter show that you emailed secretary mayorkas the both you and femas region three administer discussed the current state of coronation based on herp observations. Everything you said is cut unclear because it is heavily redacted as you can see here, but what i can see is that you express concerns committing her to no longer than 30 days, edited on the following day on march 18 you received an email from the secretary thank you for supporting fema region three administrators dedication to the borderit coordination with suppt for 30k period. The teens are specials as instead that deal with disasters. Does that mean you and the secretary agree theres a disaster on the border you sent one of these go ahead. Our incident management assistance teams are unique teams that are trained to deal with complex problems. And the skill set that they bring specifically the team that our region three administrator leads as a team made up of collateral leaders across our agency decide to support a variety of different incidents to help bring the level of collaboration, coronation and communication, the skill set of Emergency Managers bring to all of the problems that we solve. So its not about disasters . This was about creating an organizational structure to help support our partners across the department, establish a sound unified i guess by transposition if its not the disaster and it is to create this team then were saying apparently secretary mayorkas and department of Homeland Security doesnt have what it needs, its not equipped to handle whats happening on the southern border because they are calling on you. You are resource challenged by your admission. You were concerned per your email. In november you emailed the secretary indicated he had requested support again from your region three administrator on thel border. I would remind you that region three covers pennsylvania and the district i am proud to represent. And im concerned about those folks in the district that are paying the taxes for fema to support them, and to remind everybody that region three the district were talking about had three, correction, 11 major disaster declarations not including covid during that period. Im concerned as you are, how many personnel, how many people did fema sent to the border, and what was the duration . Since i cant find out from these emails. The specific instance you are talking about with our region three Regional Administrative gunness part of a imat team made up of collateral personal from across our agency. Many from headquarters ouryo region thats great. How many for how long . They have a handful of people to i dont know exactly how many from the team but the team is only 12 people and speedy so it wouldnt be more than 12 . It would not be more than 12. And you dont know how long or how many instances . That team was sent to here in d. C. To work with our partners across the department to help them establish what is now the southwest Border Coordination Center and they have been speeded up while they were in d. C. Or at the south was born they were not focus on region three which is pennsylvania which is what they were hired to do. Its what they are supposed, thats their daily responsibility, right . While we are having disasters in that region they are focus in washington, d. C. And the border particular. Thats what i see here. The only person on the team frome region three is a one person who is the lead. This is a team thats also the person in region three thats the lead for region three. This team is made up of personnel to come up support a variety of i did it but my point is that this person is not focus on the region that having disasters because they are focused on the border. While we might disagree or agree while the border disaster is happening, i would contend its happening because of the policies of this administration. The people in pennsylvania that are paying for their region administrator dont get the region administrator because the administration determines that that person is going to be on the southwest border or in washington, d. C. Dealing with the southwest border problem caused by this administration. Let me ask you this final question. Who is paying for that . Who is paying for that . For the region three for the imat team, for the corn indy, the person exposed in pennsylvania that is in washington, d. C. Dealing with the southwest border. Who is paying for that . Is a part our appropriate speeded fema is paying for the border, right . When you pay your taxes and we say thats all going to the department of Homeland Security, this portion to secure the border, thats not true. The department of Homeland Security is now requiring fema to take some of the Disaster Relief people and send them somewhere tori deal with the border. Thats how were alsoo getting with this so its costing double. That ilyapo somin security, andy the way i do love people realize this but you are not supposed to be duplicating services that are provided by another agency whether its interior, whether its for street. You were doing that with planting trees as well, another story. On this occasion your duplicating services that are supposed to be handled by the department of Homeland Security with fema dollars and yet fema is demanding and asking and maybe rightly so in many cases for for a supplemental for Disaster Assistance funding, at the same time they are spending americas taxpaying dollars that are supposed to go to Disaster Relief on the southwest border and a disaster created by policy by this administration. With that ideal and a recognized the gentlelady from nevada, ms. Titus. Thank you. Lets go back and talk about the inflation reduction act. Its been called the greatest investment in environmental policy in a lifetime. One of the things that it did was authorized femas public assistance and Hazard Mitigation programs that provide reimbursements for the use of low Carbon Materials and incorporate future climate projections into the Emergency Management plans. Use usenet energy, net zero ey as well. Would you talk about how that has been helpful . How you are leveraging that, outfits into your overall recovery and replacement of rebuilding schemes . Wea are grateful for that added the ability to reimburse jurisdictions that use this type of Construction Methodology to increase their resilience as we are rebuilding but also reduce the impact on our environment. This is a new program. These are the types of projects that take years to build. I am very excited to see how our jurisdictions across the country are now going to be able to build back in with with thg makes the moren resilient like make some better for the environment as we go forward. When this kind of build back better so we dont build back just what itac was before the disaster so that if that incident occurs again were faced with hosting problem one more time . Absolutely. Our goal is to build back bettr so communities do not have to repeat the complex recovery after facing today. So in the long what this would be a more efficient use of taxpayer dollars and would probably be cheaper as you amortize it out over future disasters forfa every dollar we invest in mitigation saves six dollars in recovery. Is that across all kinds of disasters, whether it is fire or hurricane so what if it is, just a general . The Current Study show one dollar invested in mitigation saves six dollars in recovery im sure it varies slightly from type of event and type of event but that isi the recent study they came out shows how much mitigation does save our taxpayers in the end from recovering. So this would be a good thing to save taxpayer dollars while also trying to save the planet. Absolutely. Thank you. I yield back. The chair now recognizes the judgment from california mr. Lamalfa. Thank you, mr. T chairman. Again thanks for allowing me to sit in andab for a second roundf questions. Thank you for your appearance and for the coordination weve been able tofo have with fema in northerne california after the mini disasters. In recovery from wildfires in my own district, without a lot of great strides, but some bureaucratic challenges have delayed progress and really true recovery so that victims can get back to normal. Suggest removing hazardous trees or to build housing, fixie road, local jurisdiction must do a a nepa. Every project within the Recovery Process has a a sepae nepa requirement which can take a year to produce, often time for things that are very basic, you would need a fullblown nepa for changing a culvert or a special already existing infrastructure. So not much has changed on process so my constituents continue to say this is such a pain for them. It really does take more time and sometimes opportunities as grant dollars run out and may expire. Or more conditions keep getting added on. It would beo i believe in many folks have weighed in with me that couldnt we have one big regional nepa after, in this case of wildfire, for the whole burn scar and have that applicable for all recovery and mitigation projects tied to the disaster that was declared by the president . Wouldnt that seem like a common sense way of doing it, as having an areawide, in this case, burn scar wide nepa and do it as a catchall its that is so much duplication like this own, that some, this project . Is that something we can strive for . There are a number of policies out there when we do in our environmental and historic reviews, and nepa is one of those that are out there. There are tools in our toolbox that can do programmatic reviews but he can each instance is very different. We would have to worken with eah jurisdiction to better understand how we can apply broader application of our toos which we have done in some areas but we cant do it in every area because they are also specific or i can keep the original answer but happy topl continue o work with you on ways we can streamline this process because we also recognize its one of those pieces of this recovery and rebuilding effort that has some of the longer timelines associated with it. Thank you. Indeed in the paradise area, the campfire, we are going to be five years in in november and e are still chasing permits to remove hazardous trees. These are dead trees that are not going to be part of the landscape or a positive part, a handful for woodpeckers another extent that acres and acres. This keeps a dark cloud over recovery, over rebuilding and indeed getting insurance again for the area Insurance Companies are pulling out of california and pulling out of areas like this even though what you would really look at, the risk has changed completely after that devastating fire, such a complete fire. Once these trees are removed and will be an much insurable area for folks, and you have folks come when lady, one anecdote and i will stop, and a lady and her i think two kids when they were in their home, and during a winter event, trees were falling over, dead trees. You could hear them cracking. She finally decide which is going to get them out of her home because she was within reach of some of the trees, go take a hotel down the hill and the town of chico rather than stay in her home because we keep hanging on, hang on with the inability to quickly and efficiently move, remove thehe hazardous trees that still exist. Awe dont need nepa in every project. The darn nepa doesnt teach you that much anyway. I dont know if they even read the thing, you know . At the end of the day, is it going to affect yellow toad solomon would have you . The work is going to get done. Its just a lot more pain. We need help on that as i mentioned a while ago. It in your conversations with the regulators onn this, please emphasize that a broader approach, burn scar approach can would be very helpful for everybody, im sure for your department, for the people who are victims. Thank you for that. I yield back. The chair thanks a gentleman. The gentleman yields back. Any further questions from the members from the subcommittee of that can recognize . Seeing then, that concludes are hidden for today. I would like to thank each of correction, the witness, for her testimony for being here today. Tough questions come tough job. We appreciate you. We thank you for coming and taking the heat. This hearing is adjourned. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] coming up live today on the cspan networks, at 90 and eastern on cspan the house nes for legislative visits to continue workn on a series of 2024 spending bills as negotiions on a shortterm spending measure continue off the floor. On cspan2 at 10 m. The senate is back to resume work on its own version of a shortterm spending bill to fund the federal government be on saturday at midnight and avert a potential shutdn. In the evening former president donald tru speaks to supporters at a a rally outsie detroit. At 10 a. M. On cspan3 the